The torrent of technological innovation over the last 15 years has done little to change the way most people usually interact with their personal computers, which is generally by sitting in front of a keyboard, mouse and monitor.
The problem with the traditional method for a human interacting with their personal computer is that the human body is not suited to sitting for hours at a time, particularly while typing, pointing, clicking, and staring at an illuminated screen. This combination is further frustrated in that it can lead to muscle strain, fatigue and stress. Still, experts in ergonomics say there are several easy and effective ways in which computer users can improve their physical comfort, fight fatigue, and reduce the risk of injuries from repetitive motions.
Laptop computers are popular alternatives to desktop computers. However, the more that laptop computers are made to do the job of desktop computers, the more that their virtues, such as a small form factor and integrated keyboard and display, become liabilities. For example, the user must stare down at the display of the laptop computer while using the keyboard. This becomes fatiguing after more than just casual use.
Posture is one area in which minor adjustments can quickly yield benefits. Even at home, but especially in a more stressful environment like an office, users may force their bodies into rigid positions that result in fatigue, muscle strain, and, potentially, injury.
Maintaining what experts call optimal ergonomic positioning can increase energy levels and improve overall comfort, although it may take a few weeks before the results are noticeable. Good posture keeps the spine in what health professionals call the neutral position. Achieving a neutral position while seated upright in a chair with good lumbar support entails lifting the rib cage away from the hips, tucking in the belly, pulling the shoulders back, centering the weight of the head atop the spine and maintaining the lower back in a gentle C-shaped curve. Sustaining this position can help reduce muscle strain and relieve pressure on the lower back.
Beyond spinal posture, optimal ergonomic positioning requires tailoring the work area to fit the user's needs. Among things necessary to accomplish that is to position the monitor's top edge at eye level. This monitor position reduces muscle strain caused by the weight of your head leaning too far forward or backward.
Laptop users in particular should pay attention to screen height. Often the laptop screen is too low in relation to the user's eyes or the screen itself is very small, prompting the user to hunch forward to see text and images more clearly. A couple of hours in that position can significantly strain the muscles at the back of the neck and throughout the upper body.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,208,508, to Ruch et al., discloses a docking station that supports a notebook computer docked thereto. The '508 patent discloses a type of docking station that provides electrical conductivity through the docking station itself. The docking station is a wedge-like arrangement. Such an arrangement both takes up significant space on a user's desktop, and yet, for most users and most data display devices, does not elevate the laptop display sufficiently so that the top of the display is at the user's eye-level. Moreover, such a device does not adjust to the needs of specific users.
Sanyo, as shown in FIG. 1 (http://www.try-computing.com/docking.htm), sells a generic docking station that is believed to exemplify the prior art docking stations. A docking station may provide power and external connections (to such external facilities as printers and networks) to a laptop.
The Quicklook laptop computer stand, see FIG. 2, tilts the laptop to change the laptop keyboard's typing angle. Such a stand, however, is designed with the assumption that the individual using the laptop computer wants to use the laptop's built-in keyboard. Thus, this stand is primarily intended as a mechanism for improving the ergonomics of the laptop's keyboard. Such a stand does not provide an optimal viewing angle for the laptop display because, for most users and most data display devices, the top edge of the screen is placed at an elevation lower than the user's eye level.
Another example of a laptop stand is the Podium CoolPad, shown in FIG. 3 (http://www.roadtools.com/podium.html). While this stand is adjustable, it only accommodates three alternative heights, which heights are too short to position the top edge of most data display devices at the same elevation as the user's eyes. In part, the limited height adjustment in such devices may be because such devices were developed to tilt the typing angle of the laptop's built-in keyboard and not to raise the height of a data display device.
Yet another solution has been to place the laptop on a stand that holds it high and at an angle, and attaching an external keyboard and mouse. For instance, the laptop stands sold by iCurve (www.griffintechnology.com), as illustrated in FIG. 4, take this approach. However, this device does not adjust to accommodate different sized users and data display devices.
The only device on the market that can raise a data display device of various sizes to the eye level of a variety of users is the device sold by Humanscale (www.humanscale.com) and is shown in FIG. 5. However, the aesthetics of the Humanscale device could be improved upon, and it would be useful to add additional features.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a stand for a laptop computer that both supports the laptop computer in a minimal amount of desktop space, while at the same time elevates the laptop computer to a user's eye-level, thereby mitigating the affects of fatigue that are otherwise caused by staring down at the screen of a laptop. It is further desired that such a stand is adjustable to accommodate a range of users.